The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
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Telescopes & Instruments

Modern astronomy requires the best telescopes, detectors, spacecraft, and other equipment. The scientists, engineers, and staff of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian participate in every aspect of the process: designing, building, and using advanced observatories and labs that lead to breakthrough science.

Giant Magellan 
Telescope

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The Giant Magellan Telescope will be one of the few super giant earth-based telescopes that promises to revolutionize our view and understanding of the universe. It will be constructed at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Commissioning of the telescope is scheduled to begin in 2021.

Everything to Make Astronomy Research Possible

CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian researchers are involved in the design and operation of some of the most powerful telescopes, spacecraft, and astronomical detectors in the world. These range from small visible-light telescopes to world-spanning radio observatories to a space probe flying through the Sun’s atmosphere. Engineers at the CfA build cameras and detectors to reveal hidden or faint astronomical objects: exoplanets, black holes, and the earliest galaxies in the cosmos. These telescopes span the entire spectrum of light, from long-wavelength radio light to high-energy gamma rays, and search for signs of atmospheres on distant exoplanets.